----------移动的社会主义第三回展

邹跃进

 

 

这次参加先声画廊举办的“山花烂漫----------移动的社会主义第三回展”的艺术家有李路明、王明贤、祁志龙、赖力、张念、徐一晖、任虹、陈文令、杨卫、瞿广慈、黄钢。这是“移动的社会主义”在2005年的时态空间举办第一回，2007年的环铁美术馆举办第二回之后举办的第三回展览。

移动的社会主义第三回展的主题“山花烂漫”，选自毛泽东在1961年写的一首诗：

“风雨送春归，飞雪迎春到。已是悬崖百丈冰，犹有花枝俏。俏也不争春，只把春来报。待到山花烂漫时，她在丛中笑。”

以“山花烂漫”为本次展览的主题，不仅与这首诗本身的艺术境界和审美意味相关，而且更为重要的是与这首诗的作者和时代 -----“毛泽东时代”------相关。这种相关的重要性在于：在毛泽东时代，文学艺术经历了两个发展阶段，或者说两种类型，一种是受西欧的古典写实艺术和前苏联的社会主义现实主义影响的艺术，尽管这种艺术表达的历史和现实的题材是革命的，与执政后的中国共产党的意识形态高度一致，但在艺术语言和风格上，却具有较强的学院特征。这一类型的艺术主要体现在文革之前十七年的美术中。另一种是毛泽东倡导的“现实主义与浪漫主义”相结合的艺术，这种艺术类型主要出现在两个时期，一是1958年席卷全国的壁画运动，此时的“革命现实主义与革命浪漫主义”相结合的创作方法，表现为以中国传统神话故事的内容和表达方式，想象性地描绘中国社会主义的美好未来。另一个时期是以“红光亮”、“高大全”的方式表现英雄工农兵和领袖毛泽东的文革美术。这次参加“山花烂漫”的艺术作品，从总体上说，只与后一种毛泽东时代的视觉文化和艺术类型有关系。对于这种关系的意义，我们可以从如下的角度给予理解：首先，从效果史的角度看，不管是从肯定还是否定的意义上，毛泽东时代“革命现实主义和革命浪漫主义”相结合的艺术类型，与“社会主义现实主义”的艺术类型比较起来，对改革开放以来的艺术发展影响更大，也更全面和深刻。其次，由于这种视觉文化和艺术类型所再现和反映的那一时代的社会生活，在五、六十年代出生的艺术家中，都留下了极其深刻的印象，从而使其作为一种集体和个人记忆而影响到他们今天的艺术方向。第三，经历过上世纪八十年代现代主义艺术的洗礼之后，中国艺术家开始从当代艺术观念出发进行艺术实践，结果是更加重视与自身相关的生活、历史与文化经验在艺术表达中的重要作用。

我认为参加“山花烂漫-----移动的社会主义第三回展”的艺术作品，可以被看成是从当下的生存感受和历史记忆的交融出发，对毛泽东时代的视觉文化和艺术，以及社会生活中的“革命现实主义和革命浪漫主义”做出的一种回应。而从艺术表达方法的角度看，这种回应在这次参展的作品中又可分为两类：一类是从文本出发，通过挪用和修改毛泽东时代的视觉图像，表达艺术家与那一时代特定的意义关系。李路明、王明贤、张念、任虹、杨卫、黄钢的作品，就是以这种艺术方式，介入那一时代的视觉再现的。与从文本出发不同的另一类表达方式是对象化的，如赖力、祁志龙、徐一晖、陈文令、瞿广慈的艺术作品，采取的就是这种方法，即把对毛泽东时代的生活记忆，作为一种现实存在的对象来描绘，以非历史化的视觉形象，表达历史记忆中的公共经验。

当然，必须看到的是，在本次展览中，“山花烂漫”所隐喻的毛泽东时代及其“革命现实主义和革命浪漫主义”相结合的艺术与生活，并不是这次的参展作品要去认定的一个事实，而是通过它们的再度呈现，为人们深刻反思那个“山花烂漫”的时代提供一个新的方向，而这个方向之所以重要和有意义，在我看来，正在于它与当下流行的那种以玩世不恭的艺术立场，来调侃和消解那个时代的方向是相对立的。

 

2008-7-22于北京望京花园

 

 

 

Mountain Flowers in Full Bloom
---on the Third Itinerant Exhibition of the Moving Socialism
Zou Yuejin
The Third Itinerant Exhibition of the Moving Socialism under the title ““Mountain Flowers in Full Bloom” , which is hosted by the First Sound Gallery, will display the works of eleven famous artists, namely, Li Luming, Wang Mingxian, Qi Zhilong, Lai Li, Zhang Nian, Xu Yihui, Ren Hong, Chen Wenling, Yang Wei, Qu Guangci and Huang Gang. It is the third exhibition of the Moving Socialism succeeding the first one in Tense Space in 2005 and the second one in Huantie Gallery in 2007.
The third exhibition of the Moving Socialism is themed “Mountain Flowers in Full Bloom”, which originates from the poem written by Mao Zedong in 1961:
“Wind and rain escorted Spring’s departure,
Flying snow welcome Spring's return.
On the ice-clad rock rising high and sheer,
A flower blossom sweet and fair.
Sweet and fair, she craves not Spring for herself alone,
To be the harbinger of Spring she is content.
When the mountain flowers are in full bloom, She will smile mingling in their midst.”
The theme of “Mountain Flowers in Full Bloom” relates to not only the artistic realm and aesthetic flavor of the poem itself, but also more importantly the author and the era when it was written, which is called “Mao Zedong Era”. The significance of such relevance lies in that the literature and art has gone through two stages of development, or two types. One type of art is influenced by both the classical realistic art of the Western Europe and the socialist realism of the former Soviet Union. Though the historical and realistic themes covered by such type of art are revolutionary and highly consistent with the ideology of the ruling Communist Party of China, the artistic language and style are stamped with the academism features, which was represented in the fine arts seventeen years before the Cultural Revolution. The other type of art is the combination of realism and romanticism promoted by Mao Zedong. It mainly prevailed in two periods. The first was the mural painting sweeping across the country in 1958. Such creation method, combining revolutionary realism and romanticism, was to depict the imaged bright future of the Chinese socialism by means of the contents and expression way of the Chinese traditional myth stories. The second was the fine arts of the Cultural Revolution, depicting the heroic works, peasants and soldiers as well as the Greater Leader Mao Zedong in an excessive way. Generally, the artistic works on display at this Exhibition have something to do with the latter in terms of visual culture and artistic type. The meaning of such relationship can be understood from the aspects as follows: First, the artistic type combining revolutionary realism and romanticism has exerted greater, deeper and more comprehensive influence on the art development than the socialist realism since the reform and opening-up, no mater positively or negatively. Secondly, the social lives of that Era, reconstructed and reflected in such visual culture and artistic type, have left extremely deep impression on the artists born in 1950s and 1960s, and hence influenced their orientation of art as a kind of collective and individual memory. Thirdly, through the baptism of the realistic art in 1980s, the Chinese artists have turned to contemporary art concepts in their artistic practices and as a result paid great attention to the important role of life, historical and cultural experience related to them in the artistic expression.

In my opinion, the artistic works on display at this Exhibition can be regarded as the response to the visual culture and art as well as the revolutionary realism and romanticism in the social life of Mao Zedong Era, stemming from the mixture of contemporary sense of existence and historical memory. In terms of the artistic expression method, the artistic works on display can be divided into two categories: one is to originate from the text and express the special sense relationship between the artists and the Era through appropriation and revision of the visual images of Mao Zedong Era, represented by the works of Li Luming, Wang Mingxian, Zhang Nian, Ren Hong, Yang Wei and Huang Gang; however, the other is objectification, which means to depict the memory of life of Mao Zedong Era as the real existence, that is, to express the public experience in the historical memory through creation of non-historical visual images, represented by the works of Lai Li, Qi Zhilong, Xu Yihui, Chen Wenling and Qu Guangci.
Of course, it must be admitted that the works on display at this Exhibition is not to confirm Mao Zedong Era as well as the art and lives of this Era, metaphored in the theme “Mountain Flowers in Full Bloom”, but to provide a new orientation to deeply introspect the Era through re-representation of them in an artistic way. In my opinion, such new orientation is significant and meaningful because it opposes to the prevailing cynical standpoint of art that scoffs at and gets rid of that Era. 

                                      22th,July,2008  in Wang Jing Hua Yuan